Maverick Vinales closed the gap on the second day of his first race weekend as an Aprilia MotoGP rider in Aragon.
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19th and 1,142 seconds from the lead after Friday practice, the former Yamaha rider climbed to 17th place and +0.863 seconds on Saturday morning.
The Spaniard then dropped to 20th (+ 1,070s) in FP4 when he experimented with different mixes of front and rear tires for the race.
Vinales’ first Aprilia qualifying was another learning experience as he fell back into the high cornering speed habits of the M1 during his time attack, leaving him in 19th place.
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“The development has been good,” said Vinales. “As we always know, qualifying 1 is not easy because the grip is not perfect, you have to drive a great lap and it is quite complicated.
“But I think in FP4, if I stayed with used tires, I can be much more at a good level and overall I felt really good on used tires.
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“I’m very satisfied. Of course I have to work on the lines on the track because it’s so different, but overall the feeling is very positive because we still have a lot of room to improve and the lap times are” not really that far .
“We started the weekend with +2 seconds (in FP1) and now I’m 0.8-0.9 seconds. So we’re closing the gap and I think we’ll take another step tomorrow.
“The most important thing is to continue to concentrate on our side, not to look too much at the others, because I have to work a lot. First of all, to understand how to do the lap time.
“When I made the time attack, I entered the corners too quickly and I have to do the lap time differently. I have to rethink, I have to do more laps to understand how to do a good qualifying.
“Sure, this isn’t the easiest way to get started [with Aprilia at] But it was good because you know the reality and the reality is that I have to work a lot on my driving style and understand the bike. “
Teammate Aleix Espargaro’s data is helping Vinales on his steep learning curve. The Silverstone podium finisher was quick again throughout the Aragon weekend and qualified for sixth on the grid.
“I compare [with Aleix] every practice, every lap and I ride very differently, “said Vinales.” I try to get better lap times by going into corners at speed, and at that point the bike is made for a different riding style. So I have to learn.
“You always have some positive points, and a good cornering speed certainly has positive points, but now I have to learn to set the lap time on the brakes and also on the accelerator, because that’s basically what it is [V4] The engine behaves very differently [to the Inline4 Yamaha]. “
“What I like is the acceleration is really good. I mean the progression [delivery] of the engine, “added Vinales.” I just need to understand the torque, how it behaves in and around the corner and then back in the pick-up area.
“A couple of corners I have the feeling that I could accelerate beforehand, a couple of corners I have the feeling that I’m opening too early. So I have to get used to the bike to get the most out of it when accelerating.
“I also have to work on the brakes, which I think is the area that has changed a lot more than the rest.”
Another big difference from its previous machine is that Vinales can now use the hard front tire compound.
“Today I tried the hard tires for the first time in maybe two years and it was positive. So it means everything is different,” he said.
“In FP4 I felt really good on used tires. That is positive because the race will be very long and difficult and I feel good on the hard tire. It gave me a lot of feedback on hard braking.
“It’s something I wasn’t used to driving. I was used to always driving with the ‘P’. even in hot conditions, with a somewhat unstable feeling. Using the hard one gives you good stability. That is a beautiful thing.
“I’m more or less good with the tires. Today I tried the hard tire and I like it a little better than the medium one, which is something new for me, and also at the rear I think we have a good performance potential for the whole race. “